OREM, Utah — The Department of Art & Design at Utah Valley University (UVU) created two books selected to receive Independent Publisher Book Awards. With more than 2,000 publishers and around 5,000 titles submitted for consideration, UVU came out on top. 

The book J’Adore nabbed the Gold Medal award in the “Cookbooks – General” and for “Cover Design – Oversized.” The second book submitted, Grimm Gestalt, won a Bronze Medal in the “Coffee Table Books” category. 

J’Adore 

UVU’s Culinary Arts Institute and The Department of Art & Design of UVU’s School of the Arts created J’Adore. Furthermore, many faculty members and Graphic Design and Photography students helped with the final copy.

Two classes at UVU created the photography contained in this cookbook. John Rees in conjunction with Chef Todd taught the first class, creating shots of plated food. Trent Bates taught the second class, focusing on creating images to supplement the plated dishes. The book had over 2,000 photographs submitted. 

The graphic design team for J’Adore consisted of sixteen students taught by Gareth Fry. Chef Todd selected the overall design created by Sierra Lawrence. Kirill Solmein, another student, created the initial design used for the front cover.

Grimm Gestalt

Comparatively, the book Grimm Gestalt had a much bigger collaboration team. Graphic design, photography, painting/drawing/printmaking, illustration, and sculpture/ceramics with both student and faculty contributed to this book. They helped create content inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. 

“Art historians researched and wrote about the Brothers Grimm. Within each of these artistic genres the variety in approach was as stark and diverse as the stories themselves. Imagery ranged from playful to disturbing and from literal to poetic. The artists involved were encouraged to explore and play to each of their own strengths and creative processes,” according to UVU. 

The graphic design team created six unique styles of stories for the book. No two stories have the same style according to Utah Valley University. 

The full list of this year’s winners can be found here: ippyawards.com/164/2022-medalists and  The Art & Design books here: uvu.edu/arts/books.

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